To my mind we are closer than we were in 1968. Yet to some degree, the drama takes the sting out of what is still a sinister reality.
3 comments:
microdave
said...
I've not seen that before, and I don't know whether I find it disturbing or amusing (or a bit of both). One thing IS for sure - they couldn't have found a better actor than Donald Pleasence to play the part of "JG"! It rather fits in with the later "Yes Minister/Prime Minister" series which exhibited an uncanny ability to see into the future, with the subject of virtually every episode coming true in some way.
I don't have a problem with believing that satellites exist, since I am able to steer my moveable dish to a variety of points on the Geostationary arc - the "Clarke" belt (named after Arthur C Clarke). I also remember the considerable delay when making satellite linked 'phone calls to Australia back in the 80's, which doesn't occur with fibre optic circuits nowadays.
I used to listen to international shortwave radio back then, and the concept of propaganda and "Miss-information" is nothing new. However "They" couldn't just shut off internet access 40 years ago, so jamming was the norm, and proved the desperation of some regimes to control the flow of information.
microdave - we could be entering a situation where a kind of voluntary 'jamming' is the norm, where we are encouraged to conform and are never really sure if we are being spied on. The power of official agencies to do this could be exaggerated and false stories about powerful AI monitoring systems could be planted in the media.
Sam - yes, scientist bureaucrats seem to become fully fledged bureaucrats as soon as they rub shoulders with power and influence.
3 comments:
I've not seen that before, and I don't know whether I find it disturbing or amusing (or a bit of both). One thing IS for sure - they couldn't have found a better actor than Donald Pleasence to play the part of "JG"! It rather fits in with the later "Yes Minister/Prime Minister" series which exhibited an uncanny ability to see into the future, with the subject of virtually every episode coming true in some way.
I don't have a problem with believing that satellites exist, since I am able to steer my moveable dish to a variety of points on the Geostationary arc - the "Clarke" belt (named after Arthur C Clarke). I also remember the considerable delay when making satellite linked 'phone calls to Australia back in the 80's, which doesn't occur with fibre optic circuits nowadays.
I used to listen to international shortwave radio back then, and the concept of propaganda and "Miss-information" is nothing new. However "They" couldn't just shut off internet access 40 years ago, so jamming was the norm, and proved the desperation of some regimes to control the flow of information.
But as for everything else.....
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
Donald Pleasance and Chris Whitty, I mean.
microdave - we could be entering a situation where a kind of voluntary 'jamming' is the norm, where we are encouraged to conform and are never really sure if we are being spied on. The power of official agencies to do this could be exaggerated and false stories about powerful AI monitoring systems could be planted in the media.
Sam - yes, scientist bureaucrats seem to become fully fledged bureaucrats as soon as they rub shoulders with power and influence.
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